Over 250 passengers of Delta Airlines were on Friday stranded at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos over mechanical failure to the airline’s aircraft.
The passengers who were on their way to Atlanta, Georgia, US, were already boarded for an afternoon flight out of Lagos, but were later disembarked from the aircraft due to the mechanical failure that was discovered in the aircraft.
It was learnt that the failure of the airline to airlift them as scheduled led to protest among the passengers, but the media consultant to the airline in Nigeria, debunked the claim.
The passengers it was learnt were onboard the aircraft for about four hours before they were told to disembark, which did not go down well with the passengers.
One of the affected passengers who contacted said that: “We were inside the aircraft for good four hours and we didn’t even know what is happening. They initially told us they were trying to get fuel for the flight. We were inside the aircraft until a few minutes ago when we were told the aircraft cannot depart again because it is faulty.”
Tope Ogbeni-Awe, the Media Consultant to Delta in Nigeria, confirmed that the airplane was scheduled to airlift the passengers out of the country on Friday after, but had to be rescheduled due to mechanical fault and crew time out.
He also explained that all the affected passengers would be lodged in a hotel in strict adherence to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards and recommended practices till they are airlifted on Saturday.
